Publisher’s write-up:
‘Boldly reactionary... What
looks like feast, Carr argues, may be closer to famine' Sunday Times'Chilling'
The Economist. In this ground-breaking and compelling book, Nicholas Carr
argues that not since Gutenberg invented printing has humanity been exposed to
such a mind-altering technology. The Shallows draws on the latest research to
show that the Net is literally re-wiring our brains inducing only superficial
understanding. As a consequence there are profound changes in the way we live
and communicate, remember and socialise - even in our very conception of
ourselves. By moving from the depths of thought to the shallows of distraction,
the web, it seems, is actually fostering ignorance. The Shallows is not a
manifesto for luddites, nor does it seek to turn back the clock. Rather it is a
revelatory reminder of how far the Internet has become enmeshed in our daily
existence and is affecting the way we think. This landmark book compels us all
to look anew at our dependence on this all-pervasive technology.’
The Shallows is a ten chapter
book written by the tech writer Nicholas Carr. This book in particular, was a finalist
for the Pulitzer Prize. It needs to be kept in mind that the first edition was
published in 2010, when iPhone was ‘new’ and social media did not have the
level of impact it does today. However, in the foreword of my 10th
anniversary edition, the author claimed he stands vindicated considering what we
have made of the internet. The title of the book states that the author tries
to establish how the internet changes the way we think, read and remember, and
I would evaluate whether the author has built the case for that.
The author starts by telling us
how the concept of knowledge changed over time, where memory was important till
the time writing and archiving were invented, it was associated less with
knowledge from thereon. He also explains in detail the revolution brought by
Gutenberg with the invention of printing press changed the way we processed
information. I also liked how he compared Google to that of a church, wherein, the
company despite its shortcomings are convinced of their vision statement where
they are ‘making knowledge free’. The arguments about how our brains were
impacted, sounded technical but was interesting when it came to making his
case.
Having said that, I still found
the book a tad outdated, wherein, many studies conducted on hyperlinks and its
effect were from 90s, while I understand that many of it might still be
relevant today, it is far easier to refer hyperlinks and get to the original
text now that in was 30 years ago. It still raised a valid point, considering
how it is easy to get distracted by hyperlinks. There are also other points
where the author spoke of how we have not reduced television consumption but
significantly increased the time we spend on the internet, and thus are left
with less time. However, these days it is hard to distinguish between
television and the internet as compared to 2010 (is Netflix television or internet?
Is streaming on YouTube using your television be considered by the author as television
or internet?)
While the author spoke of
digressions, I felt for most of the book, the writer himself was digressing,
with most of the book speaking very little about the internet and rather, the
evolution of how we processed information over the centuries.
Many points raised by the author
are interesting, such as the ineffectiveness of multi-tasking, which is all the
more relevant in today’s work environment with real time conversation
capabilities, we are often tasked with many different things to do at once. It
also talks about how hyperlinks, rather than giving more information, provides
less information to the reader. Ironically though, his own books cited a lot of
sources, which, is required in a non-fiction work.
To conclude, I would say the book
raised a lot of interesting points that ought to be discussed, such as how
internet keeps us distracted. Many points got touched on the surface but none
of it went deep enough to have an impact. On that note, I would award the book
a rating of four on ten.
Rating – 4/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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